I’ve built 20+ WWII tanks and vehicles. I’m very comfortable with the subject. Nowadays, I’m getting more and more interested in Vietnam-era US jets. Of course, I have a dozen Vietnam aircraft kits in my stash. Today, I opened a Hasegawa 1/48 A-4M Skyhawk, thinking that it would be easier to build such a small airplane than the Phantom, Thud, Corsair, Crusader & Intruder. Looking at the instruction sheet, I’m overwhelmed by painting. It seems complicated. When I build armor, I can complete building and then paint. However, it seems that I have to paint many parts separately and assemble them with superglue. Also daunting is decaling. Almost 50+ decals to apply on such a small airplane, whereas only a few decals are needed for a tank.
So is building a Vietnam-era jet such a complex task? Give me some strength to start building the Skyhawk
It gets easier as you go along. Not to mention that paint scemes and decals can vary from simple to exceptionally complicated. I personally love Vietnam era arcraft and am quite comfortable building and painting them. And since you chose one the hasegawa state of the art kits, it is gonna be more complicated that other companies versions of the same bird, or some of it’s contemporaries.
So should I start with Revell kits? I have a Thunderchief and an Intruder. The F-105 seems easier to build. Painting is very similar to 3-color armor painting and the number of decals is low. But it’s big compared to 1/35 armor.
Well, the USN jets are a bit easier, since they are only grey and white (except for where they’re not :)- )
Really, you could pick up something a little less that state-of-the-art to practice upon. I’d suggest an out-of-bob Monogram 1/48 Skyraider. Do it up in gull grey over white. Do the stores separately, just as you would an armor kit. Remember that the a/c people always start with the cockpit, because those are right hard to finish once assembled in the fuselage. Later on, you could use it for a practice bird to get your SEA camo skills up to where you want them.
Build a major warship (especially a sailing one). You will never again complain about complexity or building time. One of my sailing warships (still unfinished) has well over 2000 parts in the kit.
Yes I would recommend their kits to cut your teeth on in that subject area and scale. You may want to look at their A-4E as it has the simplicity of a single seater along with the simplicity of a Navy/Marine Corps two tone paint scheme. And a far lower parts count than the Hasegawa kit. Which it is about 20+ years older than. And aside from a few subjects, most of the Vietnam era fighters and fighter bombers were medium to large aircraft.
If I may, the Hasagawa F8 Crusader isn’t a difficult build. Single engine, single intake and the fit is great. I agree that the decals are overwhelming. One thing about Hasagawa kits are instructions. They are busy, which makes the build look at lot more complex.
Also, although not quite Vietnam era, but Hobby Boss FJ4 Fury is a nice little build.
I’ve done Skyhawks, Corsairs, Crusaders, Intruders, Broncos, Hueys, Cobras, and other Vietnam era aircrafts. I usually like doing Carrier-based aircrafts due to their colorful decals and 2 colors schemes. Of course choppers are usually in olive drab colors.
I agree. The parts count of the Hasegawa A-4M is very low compared to that of some of the Dragon AFV kits I’ve built and painted. But the Hasegawa instructions look very busy.
But in Hasegawa’s favor you never have or hear of the problems with directions that you get with Dragon. None of those ambiguities or flat out errors to be found.
You think Hasegawa’s instructions are busy, try reading Ark Model kits. They’re in Russian. As long as you get the gist of how a kit comes together, you’ll do fine. [:)]
I’ve done tons of Hasegawa kits in my younger years and never had trouble following them step by step.
A-4Ms entered fleet service in 1971. I do believe that they may have equipped the last Marine squadrons in Vietnam at the time of the cease fire in 1973
Another good reason is that there will be a much larger pool of decals for the three versions of long nosed Skyhawks that did serve in Vietnam. (three versions, A-4E, A-4E Super Echo, A-4F), and some of the units had vastly different markings at different times.
4 USMC and 22 USN squadrons, some of them from the LantFlt deployed to Vietnam or South China Sea carriers with those three versions. Vs 6 A-4M line units in total.
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